Diagnosis:Cucullia obscurior has a uniform
gray forewing without the purple-brown tinge found in florea.
In the past obscurior has been treated as a subspecies of florea
and may still turn out to be, but possible small areas of sympatry between
the two have led me to treat them as distinct. The relationship between
obscurior and florea is discussed more fully under florea.
Wing length from base to apex: mean = 21.49 mm., standard deviation =
1.54 mm., n = 10.

Distribution:Cucullia obscurior is a species
of the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin regions of the United States. It
ranges in the north from Washington and Idaho down through Colorado to
New Mexico and southern Arizona. In addition there are three specimens
from north-central North Dakota that might be assigned to this species,
but which I have determined as florea on biogeographical grounds.

Adults have been collected in late June, July, and August.

Identification Quality: Excellent

Larva: The larvae and its foodplants are unknown.

Foodplants: Specimens reared by Crumb from the Mt. Rainier
region of Washington were reared on Aster sp. However the larvae
in unknown because Crumb confounded the larvae of the three species florea,
postera, and obscurior under the name omissa.